fund​new life for​historic yonge

About the Fund

The Fund is the creation of the resident associations on either side of Yonge Street that together represent the community bound by Jarvis St. to Queen's Park West and from Charles St south to College & Carlton Streets.

The Associations funded the application for Party status heard at OMB on January 7, 2016 and granted in the ruling January 26, 2016.

The hearings on Official Plan Amendment 183 North Downtown Yonge will take place in two phases, the second to be solely concerned with heritage matters on Yonge St. (to be scheduled in the future); and everything other than Yonge St heritage, scheduled in Phase One to be heard in April with mediation in mid-February.

Previous Successes

Both BCCA and CWNA have been successfully shaping our neighbourhoods’ built environment for some years, which is why we believe our active involvement in this phase is so important.

Creating Better StreetscapesEvery week, we’re working with the City and developers to advocate for better places and environments for neighbourhood residents. We stand for retail spaces of the right size to attract tenants that are more likely to be independent, small-scale operators, rather than the big-box operators more suited to the suburbs. We look for building materials at ground level to reflect the existing streetscape, rather than being more steel and glass and a more animated and safer environmentfor pedestrians and patio users and bioswale for better street tree growth.

Creating Green SpaceWe mounted a successful campaign to see part of the land at 11 Wellesley West become a public park, instead of being over-developed as entirely private land. The City spent $8 million to purchase the park strata. The park is now being designed and public consultation on the design will take place in the Spring of 2016.

The Cloverhill Park north of St. Joseph Street is due for construction beginning in 2016 and demolition permit has been issued for the sales office building..

Creating Policy

As committed volunteers working over the past decade we’ve accumulated expertise in urban design, and influenced key city planning documents such as the Tall Buildings Guidelines, HCD Guidelines and other official plan policies . Together we nominated the Historic Yonge Heritage Conservation District and seen it through consultations and the approval of Toronto Preservation Board, the Toronto and East York Community Council and Toronto City Council.

We are depending on residents to fund this campaign so we can protect the heritage district and area plan at the Ontario Municipal Board.